Haunted Rockman World on Game Boy
by TheDoubleDragon296
Summary: Beware of cheap games you see on eBay... that's all I need to tell you.


Hi, my name is Vincent. I was always a huge 8-bit mega man fan. As a kid, I played Mega Man 1 through 6 on the NES. In short, I guess you could say Mega Man was a huge part of my childhood.

However, I began to forget about Mega Man as I grew older. By the time I was in middle school, I was an avid COD (Call of Duty) fan, beating all of the games in about half a month.

By the time I was a junior in high school, I had no time for videogames. I needed to study for the SAT, focus on my GPA, and begin to plan on what college I would be attending. It was a serious time, to say the least.

It wasn't until senior year of high school that I came across my childhood. My mom told me to go clean my room since it was a "pigsty". As I searched through some boxes, I suddenly found all of my Game Boy games. They weren't touched for about 10 years or so. As I browsed through my library of games, I remembered that my greedy brother sold my original copy of _Rockman World_ to the local Gamestop just for a couple bucks. He wanted to make easy money.

I sighed at that memory, and went online to eBay to buy the game. All of the prices were pretty high, but one listing caught my eye. A CIB (Complete in Box) copy of Rockman World was being sold for just a mere 10 dollars. I was surprised, because all the other CIB copies of the game were being sold for about 40 or even 50 dollars. I just said whatever, and bought the game. A nice deal can't hurt, right?

The game arrived in a few days. When I ripped open the package and took out the box, something didn't seem right. The box art was a little faded, and apparently the word "Death" was written on the front in red sharpie marker. Mega Man also had a sad face expression. A skeletal man in a black cloak was in the background; I thought it was Skull Man from Mega Man IV on the NES, but my memory at the time was a little dusty. Anyways, I just shrugged and popped the game into my Game Boy Color.

The title screen seemed pretty normal. There were some skips and jumps in the music, but that were pretty much expected, since the game is so old. I thought to myself, _"Maybe this won't be so bad after all_. _Perhaps the strange stuff on the box was just a cruel joke or something_." I hit the start button.

I completely regret doing that.

The game brought me to the boss select screen. In a classic Mega Man game, you would pick a boss, play through his stage, and fight him. That wasn't the case in my scenario. A picture of a human skull replaced the sprites of Cutman, Iceman, Elecman, and Fireman. Oh, and these aren't the skulls you normally see in a kid's TV show. They looked very realistic, and they were staring RIGHT AT ME. But the scariest picture was in the middle of the screen.

In the original Rockman World, right after you beat the 1st 4 bosses, Dr. Wily's sprite would appear in the middle of the boss select screen. That was also not the case in my scenario. A picture of the grim reaper replaced Dr. Wily's sprite, and it too was staring RIGHT AT ME. The eeriest thing was that there was no music. It was just pure silence... _dead silence_.

At that point, I was scared out of my mind. But, my curiosity forced me to press on. I tried selecting one of the "skulls", but the game wouldn't budge. I was only allowed to select the grim reaper. Covering my eyes, I hit start, and the screen flashed.

Mega Man teleported into a cemetery. I immediately recognized the music; it was the Pokemon Gold/Silver Lavender Town theme. Mega Man actually looked pretty calm. There were no enemies in sight. I began to calm down and tell myself that the scary part was over, that everything was going to be okay and nothing would freak me out.

I was dead wrong.

When I entered a crypt, the music abruptly stopped. There were corpses and skeletons all over the walls and the floor. A picture of the grim reaper's face would occasionally flash across the screen. At this point, Mega Man began to look a little frightened; he had a worried expression on his face. I climbed down a set of ladders that led to a long hallway. Blood stained the walls and the ground.

By this time, Mega Man began to look at me and make frantic gestures. There was sadness in his eyes, and he repeatedly looked around him while shivering in fear.

It didn't take me long to understand what Mega Man was trying to say. He was obviously breaking the fourth wall, that is, he wanted me to get him out of there ASAP. I couldn't blame him for being scared… I was terrified, too. I had no choice but to press on.

After what seemed like forever, I finally reached the end of the hallway. I needed to drop into a hole on the ground to continue. When I finally landed, a text box appeared.

_"You finally decided to show up after all, Mega Man..."_

I hit the A button.

_"Now is the time you go to hell. You have been alive for too long..."_

I was then thrown into a boss fight with the Grim Reaper. I tried shooting at him with my Mega Buster, but to no avail. I tried to select a weapon, and then it hit me. I had exactly 6 bars of health, 6 lives, and 6 weapons to choose from. That spells out 666... I was a little spooked out by that.

No matter what weapon I used against him, it was no use. The bullets bounced off of him harmlessly. After I lost all my lives, I was greeted by the game over screen.

It was a picture of Mega Man's face. His eyeballs were missing, and blood was pouring out of his eyes. Parts of his cheek were missing, and you could see the robotic structure to his face. The screen cut to black, and about 10 seconds later, the grim reaper's face showed up on the screen. Under his face, the words "GAME OVER" appeared in white text.

At that point, I was screaming, hollering, and crying. I went down to my basement, grabbed a hammer, and smashed the cartridge into pieces. I then burned the pieces in a newspaper, never to see the cursed game again.

After that wonderful experience (sarcasm), I never bought used games on eBay again.


End file.
